I can't vouch for the CIA, however I found the VCAP-DCA to be a really good exam. It was tough but I had a great time with it. It is also nice to study for as they give you a list of things you can lab out and its very cut and dry as you either get it right or wrong. The DCA covers a lot of the day-to-day VMware administrator duties and every other kind of functionality there is 
So you may have to study a little less for it depending on what you do in a day-to-day basis.
Hope this has helped